NBC orders a Pilot Episode for a Quantum Leap Reboot

[Malvolio]

That's funny. My father would throw a fit when an episode of a show ended with, "To be continued". He'd even declare that he would not have even watched it had he known that. Were he still alive, I suspect he would hate what television is now, with season long arcs and even season ending cliffhangers. I don't even think streaming would make any difference because he would want to see the whole story today and within a reasonable period of time. He would always say, "If you are going to have 2 parts, then just preempt another show and have that show be two hours. Next week, show two episodes of the show that was preempted. There's also the factor that shows today try to hook you into being far more emotionally involved in the characters and situations than they did back then when you normally didn't get all that much of the private lives of the characters and no subplots, just each episode being self-contained with rarely a reference to previous events.

I personally liked certain shows of the 1990s (Hercules and, especially, Xena, come to mind) where most episodes were stand alone but there were subplots involving the relationships of the characters. Those subplots carried over and required the episodes be shown in a certain order. To me, that was a happy medium between the totally stand alone shows from before and the story that never ends of today.

My father was much the same way. I think that's why one of his favorite more recent shows was NCIS, one of the few modern shows that is more or less episodic.

[Vakanai]

While I have my problems with them doing this show (episodic vs story arc storytelling), this thing about only leaping in your lifetime and the past 30-40 years not being as good a playground for a new show as Sam Beckett's lifetime of the 1950-80s was is kind of ridiculous. Thinking back on my 34 years of life, I saw the Clinton sex scandal, 9/11, war in Iraq and Afganistan, police shootings of black youths, the first school shooting and the rise of that madness, the Boston marathon bombing, gun control debates, the Trump years, the return or rather resurgence of white power nationalists (ick), the rise of social media, internet bullying, social media influencers, the 2008 home bubble burst and resultant recession, and all of this is off the top of my head, and I don't keep up with current events and the news all that well. People can make tons and tons of possible stories out of all these events and more. And you're telling me a new show would be held back because he can't go visit the 1960s? That is silly. Recent decades have been many things, but boring and uneventful they have not been, not by a long shot.

[Powerboy]

While I have my problems with them doing this show (episodic vs story arc storytelling), this thing about only leaping in your lifetime and the past 30-40 years not being as good a playground for a new show as Sam Beckett's lifetime of the 1950-80s was is kind of ridiculous. Thinking back on my 34 years of life, I saw the Clinton sex scandal, 9/11, war in Iraq and Afganistan, police shootings of black youths, the first school shooting and the rise of that madness, the Boston marathon bombing, gun control debates, the Trump years, the return or rather resurgence of white power nationalists (ick), the rise of social media, internet bullying, social media influencers, the 2008 home bubble burst and resultant recession, and all of this is off the top of my head, and I don't keep up with current events and the news all that well. People can make tons and tons of possible stories out of all these events and more. And you're telling me a new show would be held back because he can't go visit the 1960s? That is silly. Recent decades have been many things, but boring and uneventful they have not been, not by a long shot.

Personally, I did not say that the last 30-40 years (1990s-now) could not be as rich of a story mine as the '50s and '60s. What I said was, that to me personally, it does not feel like "the past".

It's an age difference thing. To me, the Clinton thing, the first Iraq war, and so on, doesn't feel like "time travel" because it all feels like the present or very close to the present.

It sort of reminds me of a funny discussion on-line a few years ago about "What were some of the great old television shows and what are some of the great new television shows?"

At some point, several of us listed a show like "Xena" as one of the greats of the new era of television shows, which, of course, got another group going, "New? That was the 1990s! That's old shows".

You mentioned the 34 years of your life, which means that 1988, to you, probably seems as long gone as 1958 does to me. To me, 1988 is a little bit the past but not a lot.

Personally, I'm not evaluating the richness of an era but how much I'll feel like it is a time travel story.

This is what made me realize that Quantum Leap can be a very "generation sensitive" concept. I might like it as some good storytelling without getting the time travel vibe while it might feel about something way in the past to you.

[Vakanai]

Personally, I did not say that the last 30-40 years (1990s-now) could not be as rich of a story mine as the '50s and '60s. What I said was, that to me personally, it does not feel like "the past".

It's an age difference thing. To me, the Clinton thing, the first Iraq war, and so on, doesn't feel like "time travel" because it all feels like the present or very close to the present.

It sort of reminds me of a funny discussion on-line a few years ago about "What were some of the great old television shows and what are some of the great new television shows?"

At some point, several of us listed a show like "Xena" as one of the greats of the new era of television shows, which, of course, got another group going, "New? That was the 1990s! That's old shows".

You mentioned the 34 years of your life, which means that 1988, to you, probably seems as long gone as 1958 does to me. To me, 1988 is a little bit the past but not a lot.

Personally, I'm not evaluating the richness of an era but how much I'll feel like it is a time travel story.

This is what made me realize that Quantum Leap can be a very "generation sensitive" concept. I might like it as some good storytelling without getting the time travel vibe while it might feel about something way in the past to you.

Fair enough. I guess that the first series probably felt the same to those who felt like those decades weren't so long ago, versus younger viewers.

[JBatmanFan05]

With Bellisario onboard, this might be an unfounded fear, but I really hope they don't Picard Quantum Leap and try to darken it up too much. QL had some dark episodes, but a much greater proportion of material with a lighter/positive/optimistic tone. Obviously this new show can (and even should) do some darker episodes for variety's sake (and accuracy's sake), but QL is kind of just like Star Trek TNG, and I don't want it tonally obliterated.

[Jim Kelly]

Does Donald P. Bellisario have anything to do with PICARD?

[Powerboy]

Fair enough. I guess that the first series probably felt the same to those who felt like those decades weren't so long ago, versus younger viewers.

Given a bit of time to think about it, I'm going back on what I said before. I think, presented correctly, I'll be able to see massive differences between the late 1980s to present.

Aside from the scientific and technological differences, let's explore some of the social differences. Gay rights: 1990 compared to Gay rights: 2022 = no comparison.

Trans Rights/ Tran acceptance: 1990. What trans rights/ trans acceptance?

I think that, if this new show hits those sorts of subjects as hard as the original show hit racism and sexism (and the new show should hammer home how much those issues also still exist), I should love it.

[j9ac9k]

I think that, if this new show hits those sorts of subjects as hard as the original show hit racism and sexism (and the new show should hammer home how much those issues also still exist), I should love it.

Ironically, a big part of the audience now is probably as intolerant as the backwards-facing people that Sam encountered in the 50s and 60s. At least with the original show there was a presumption that the audience would be on Sam's side when he fought racism and intolerance.

[Powerboy]

Ironically, a big part of the audience now is probably as intolerant as the backwards-facing people that Sam encountered in the 50s and 60s. At least with the original show there was a presumption that the audience would be on Sam's side when he fought racism and intolerance.

I was thinking about that too. In the original QL, there was sort of an assumption that the racism and sexism Sam encountered in the '50s and '60s was something that did not exist, at least on any significant level, in the present. I'm not sure but I think the show was set something like ten years in the future of the time it was being made. That gave them a bit of leeway.

But yeah, the difference in a new QL show is that it sure as hell is not even remotely possible to play off the sheer ignorance and stupidity as something of the past. Today, it's more like a resurgence of the '50s in a way. What I mean is something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd1pXw1DmsA

I was watching this mostly because this new movie about Elvis that will be coming out has resurged my interest in him. But watch at least the first two minutes of this. The casualness with which people, on national television, throw out the N word is shocking, as well as the attitudes, and should make us think about how much the world has changed. It has. But then, you look at the racism that is really still there and is being openly shown thanks to Trump's enabling.

Makes me feel that this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-pP_dCenJA

his tribute to MLK in 1968 just after the assassination, is as relevant as ever.

But the new QL doesn't need to have him go back to 1968 to confront this issue. This year will do just fine.

[Matt Rat]

He's right there. Imagine having him on your lot and it's NOT for the most obvious thing

https://deadline.com/2022/03/scott-b...dy-1234980392/

[Vakanai]

Given a bit of time to think about it, I'm going back on what I said before. I think, presented correctly, I'll be able to see massive differences between the late 1980s to present.

Aside from the scientific and technological differences, let's explore some of the social differences. Gay rights: 1990 compared to Gay rights: 2022 = no comparison.

Trans Rights/ Tran acceptance: 1990. What trans rights/ trans acceptance?

I think that, if this new show hits those sorts of subjects as hard as the original show hit racism and sexism (and the new show should hammer home how much those issues also still exist), I should love it.

If they intend to do the series justice and be a truthful sequel in spirit, I think that they kind of have to touch on those topics and then some. And I think we need a good sci-fi show that explores these subjects more than just more fluff pieces.

[Beantownbrown]

Quantum Leap Gets Series Order

[JBatmanFan05]

Without Bakula, my interest in this show is markedly lessened. Maybe it's a ruse or they a plan to bring Bakula in, but they need Bakula at some point for this to work.

[thefinalguy]

The handling of this will make or break it.

I don't have a deep relationship with the OG but the potential is there, where the story goes will either be clever, terrible, or just boring.

I'll check it out, actually I think I'll watch the original in full just to see how it was.

[JBatmanFan05]

It's pretty hard to imagine this revival being clever enough or substantive enough given the showrunners. I think the harsh bitter truth is that QL now best belongs in the hands of HBO or Netflix, pretty much anyone but NBC. NBC did some better TV back in the day, now they don't. QL was "genre TV" but the bar is a lot lower for legacy cable "genre TV" nowadays. I don't why I didn't think about this sooner than today.

The new series is being showrun by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, whose co-credits are all over genre TV of the last decade: Alcatraz, Hawaii 5-0, Gotham, God Friended Me, and more. Original Leapers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt (who also voiced the show’s iconic opening) are both set to executive produce.